Exhibition of Maya Art

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MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BULLETIN

X, 13

Exhibition of Maya Art

The temporary exhibition installed in the Fore-
court Room represents a selection from the large
collection of objects from Central America belong-
ing to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University.
The Museum has been conducting expeditions in
this region for more than twenty years.

An attempt has been made to select objects of
interest to the visitors of an art museum rather
than to represent this, the most important archaeo-
logical field of America, in all its aspects.

The probable date which may be assigned to
the collection is about the beginning of the Christian
era. The Maya culture is one which seems to
have grown up independently of any influence
either from the East or West, in spite of some
startling analogies with certain Asiatic civilizations.

The stone sculptures from Copan, Honduras,
are, perhaps, the most striking objects of the exhi-
bition. The great seated female figure (Fig. 1)
is from a monumental stairway decorated with lines
of hieroglyphs. The stone head (Fig. 2) shows
perhaps the very best work " in the round " of the
Maya sculptor. The stone lintel from Piedras
Negras, Guatemala, is an excellent example of
bas-relief. One of the best examples of a Maya
hieroglyphic inscription is to be noted to the left
and above the six kneeling figures on this lintel.

The Mayas excelled in working in clay. Fig. 3
shows a wonderfully modelled seated figure of a

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

woman with a second figure resting in her lap.

The poise of the head and the modelling of the

breasts make a figure worthy of a place among

the objects of art in any museum.

The selection of pottery shows painted, incised,
and carved designs. The black
dishes (Fig. 4), with covers and
handles representing jaguar heads
and those of other animals, are
from burial vaults beneath the floor
of rooms. The conventionalization
of the animal and human form in
the various types of decoration is
most important from the point of
view of the development of design
in general. There is a wonderful
harmony of color seen on several
of the pieces of pottery and on a
selection of sherds.

The collection is extremely rich
in carved jades. These show in-
cised design, bas-relief and "the
round/* The variety of color
ranges from black through all the
tones of green to almost white.
Many of the pieces show the re-
sults of fire. They are all from
burial deposits and in many cases
seem to have been purposely
broken. The carved plaques and
the carved beads are perhaps the
most remarkable of this class of
objects.

The ability of the Mayas and

the people of the Isthmus in metal

ted Figure working is shown in the collection

X, 14

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BULLETIN

Fig. 4

of gold and gold and copper objects. Beaten
masks of thin sheets of gold suggest similar
Mycenaean objects. Most of the figurines were
cast by the cire perdue method. The gold
and copper bells show a variety of shapes and
the figurines present a surprising ability at metal
casting. As with the jades, many of the figures
show the result of fire.

The skull of a peccary with a beautiful in-
cised design and two carved shell disks show
ability on other lines.

Some photographs are shown which give
some idea of the buildings of this Central
American culture and many of the larger stone
objects still remaining in the ruins. A repro-
duction of the Dresden codex in this case illus-
trates the manuscripts found in connection with
this culture.

Hanging frames show reproductions of the
fresco painting on the walls of a temple in
northern Yucatan. The spirited drawing of
battle scenes and scenes of domestic life give
still another side of this wonderful American
civilization.

The exhibition will serve to show visitors
ignorant of the field of American archaeology
that there was something in this country in
pre-Columbian times worthy of the name of art.

A. M. T.

A New Chinese Marble

The first fruits of Mr. Okakura's purchases in
the Orient have begun to arrive at the Museum.
They are all of importance, but the only one to be
put on exhibition for the next few months is a
Chinese marble of the Tang Dynasty (A. D. 6 1 8-
A. D. 90 7). It is the seated figure of a Bodhisattva
on an elaborate throne. Unfortunately it has suf-
fered at the hands of vandals, probably the Chinese
Mohammedans in their raids on the Northern and
Western Provinces. But in spite of the fact that it
was broken in two at the waistline and lacks one
arm, both hands, and one side of the nose, it has
an arresting beauty that makes it comparable with
the best stone carving that has come out of China.

Fig. 2 is a reproduction of a similar figure

Fig. 3

privately owned in Japan — the closest parallel of
which there is record.

The first impression of the detail of the head is
that the sculptor adhered closely to the classical
Tang tradition, with perhaps a suggestion of extra
refinement and delicacy. The whorls of the elabo-
rately dressed hair have direct relation to the shape
of the skull on which they are piled, and their obvi-
ous weight seems to have flattened the coil to a
springing curve of just the desirable nicety of detail.

The jewel in the forehead of a Buddha or of a
Bodhisattva is according to one tradition a mole,
to another a curl of hair, and to another an all-see-
ing eye from which rays of beneficence spread to